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and jeans made out of sweatpants. so grab yourself some new prilosec otc wildberry. [ male announcer ] one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. nobody can get 100% of what they want and this is not simply a contest in terms of parties in terms of who looks good who doesn't. there are real world consequences to what we do here. >> after that the president moved to hawaii and that's where he is today. the congress is back home for the holidays and you have the fiscal cliff, that's still looming and as they call for armed guards in all of the nation's schools we'll talk to kasim reed, mayor of atlanta and one of the people around the country who say we need fewer gun, not more. as millions travel home for the holidays, stay tuned for that. good day.

i'm richard lui at the top of the hour and just two days to go before the fiscal deadline and congress has gone home for the holidays. >> in the next few days i've asked leaders of congress to work toward a package that prevents a tax hike on middle-class americans and that's an achievable goal that can get done in ten days. >> i don't want tax rates to go up and republicans don't want tax rates to go up. the best way to address our crippling debt is to make significant spending cuts and fix our tax code, to pave the way for long-term growth and opportunity. nbc's kristin welker is traveling with the president in hawaii and kristin, the president you are just learning he thinks some time off could do everyone some good here. >> that's right. on friday when president obama spoke to the nation before he left to come to hawaii he urged members of congress to take these days off during the holidays, to cool off and to gain some perspective. here's more of what president

obama had to say. take a listen. >> so, as we leave town for a few days to be with our families for the holidays i hope it gives everybody some perspective. everybody can cool off. everybody can drink some eggnog, have some christmas cookies and sing some christmas carols, enjoy the company of loved ones. >> now the president also conceded that given the time crunch, there's probably not enough time to get a large deal done. so he really urged lawmakers to work together to at least get a deal that would prevent middle class americans and that lays the groundwork for deficit reduction and the president saying he remains hopeful that something can get done before the all-important january 1st deadline and i am told by sources at the white house that this will be a working vacation for the president. >> working in terms of what you

have just learned kristen, and that is that the president, i understand, will be going to a memorial service for the late senator daniel inouye. >> reporter: that's right. president obama and the first lady will be attending that memorial service tomorrow. as you remember, on friday president obama spoke at a memorial service in d.c. for senator inouye. he praised his service as a world war ii veteran, praised him for his long service in congress and also talked about the fact that he has a personal connection to senator inouye, president obama raised partially here in hawaii. he called the senator one of his earliest political inspirations and talked about the fact that as he traveled to the mainland as a boy of 11 years old he watched senator inouye in the watergate hearings. we don't expect president obama to speak tomorrow and heel be observing the service along with a lot of members of congress. richard? >> nbc's kristen welker in hawaii with the president. thank you, kristen. speaker boehner has his work

cut out for him now, not only does he have to cut a deal with the democrats, but he has a plan b fiscal cliff proposal and let's bring in jonathan allen and third way resident fellow bill schneider. i want to start with you. you wrote an article titled revenge of the purged, and you basically were saying in your article, jonathan, that the three amigos that spooker boehner stripped out of their positions and we see them on the screen, what beef did they have? was it simply because they were stripped of their titles? >> look, i think there's a fundamental divide between them and not only speaker boehner with a lot of the republican conference. these guys lost their assignments voting against republicans a lot, but also members of the republican steering committee that led the committee led by speaker boehner have basically said that these guys have gone to another level of trying to hurt the team over the last couple of years and that's why they lost their

community assignments and there were profane words used to the way they comport themselves and as a result these guys were free of any tether to the leadership and so not only were they voting or prepared to vote against boehner this last time around. he pulled the bill so we'll never know. they were flouting him very publicly, in particular you saw tim hills' camp saying we won't be intimidated by the speaker and the republican leadership and there were some tweets, as well. the lesson wasn't learned. if anything, they're moving in the opposite direction. >> are they known for being as what jonathan was saying here, jerks and we are paraphrasing here at the moment based on what was actually said by representative moreland. what are they known for? >> they are known for being true

mostly to the tea party, and they are not responsive to the priorities of their own party leadership. they're responsive to their own constituencies and what they're worried about is being challenged by someone who is more conservative than they are and when they would hold this vote as a score on whether to support them or oppose them in the last election they got very scared and they said we'll vote against the party leadership. >> that could have emboldened them. >> so the speaker is trying to punish them and those that were the outliars as you were describing here. that didn't work and they started to work against them and the question will be what will work? >> it is not clear that there is anything that will work other than as bill points out, having their constituents not support that type of behavior that sort of -- i like to call the hell no caucus. you can't get these guys to yes. if their constituents get to the

point that they're angry, then maybe they should start voting with the party. and it's not just speaker john boehner. he was not the one sort of leading the rabble of the one leading it, he did serve on the panel and he wasn't personally the force behind that. can the speaker ignore these groups because based on what we're seeing so far they're working against him. >> he can't ignore them and what the president has to do is simply peel off 26 or more republicans to get something passed. the problem here is that, you know, what can be done now. there are only two choices. compromise or crisis. the problem with the fiscal cliff is for most voters in this country, it's not a real crisis. it's a phony crisis. it's something like the end of the world that was supposed to happen yesterday that didn't happen. it was a crisis created by congress and we're not really likely to see serious action on deficit and debt reduction,

unless and until the crisis hits people in the face and they say to their representatives you'd better do something or else and then they'll act. >> always a pleasure, bill schneider and jonathan allen with his article out as we were talking about just today. thank you so much for stopping by. >> thanks, richard. several funerals were held today for the victims of the newtown shooting. this is video from josephine's funeral in newtown. she turned 7 just before the shooting. executive vice president blamed the media and violent video games for violence in society. >> there exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow in industry that sells and stows violence against its own people.

through vicious, violent video games with names like bullet storm, grand theft auto, "mortal kombat" and "splatter house." >> joining me now is kasim reid of georgia, he's one of more than 750 mayors across the country who sent a heart to president obama asking him to take action since the newtown shooting program thanks for being with us. i want to start with this. your reaction to the nra and you heard of lapierre's statement to the nra. what's your thought on the plan put out there to put guns in schools. >> first, richard, thank you for having me. my reaction to the statement yesterday is that i'm disappointed, but not surprised, candidly, and i think we have to stay very focused here and not be put off by the kind of distraction that was put forth yesterday. we certainly need to have

concrete plans to make sure our schools are safe, but the notion of adding more guns as a solution is wrong minded and we shouldn't be distracted by the comments yesterday. this is what i believe they were. >> how practical is the idea put forth? the department of labor saying that the average salary for a police officer is about $55,000. there's about 100,000 public schools across the country and it would mean $5 billion if the plan were to be carried out. >> i don't think there's anything more precious than our kids so we do need to make sure that we change and have plans to address school safety, but i don't believe that yesterday was a serious proposal. the fact of the matter is is that we need to focus on removing assault weapons and assault-like weapons from the hands of those individuals who would harm people. we also need to get rid of illegal guns and we need to make

sure that the size of the magazines on those guns are reduced so that people can't kill so many people at once. these are concrete things that we can do right now. many of these measures are measures that were supported by president reagan in 1994. we've allowed the assault weapons ban to expire in 2004. so we can't get distracted right now because candidly, there are many on the other side that simply want to run out the clock and believe that after christmas and after the holidays and after new year's that america's attention will turn elsewhere. i'm a part of a group of 750 mayors who with are working hard to make sure that doesn't happen. >> you're describing long-term goals based on what we see has just happened, now just a week ago. and then you're saying what can we do now? ohio's attorney general saying schools should consider arming someone in their building. on cbs news today they quoted

one sandy hook parent saying that a step in the right direction might be arming those in schools. so for those parents that may say to you, yes. i feel more comfortable with an armed guard in their child's building, what do you say to them? what do you say to what they want done right now, the safety of their children? >> what i would say is we need to be both quick and right. the vice president of the united states, the person who has led on this issue in the past is working very hard with a group right now. this isn't some long-term study committee. the president will have a bill in january, and i think that we need to make sure that the bill we bring forward will make real change and that it's right. so we shouldn't rush to put forth a bad bill. i don't believe adding more guns to the environment is a solution. i do believe that cities need to have additional, red-made plans that are sensitive to responding to schools rapidly.

>> what did you do in atlanta once this happened? >> that's the charge that i made to my police chief and we're developing plans in the city of atlanta to respond faster to our local schools in the event that there is an emergency. we are looking at the best in practice standards and we're doing what mayors across america is doing and making sure that we have a plan to move quicker and that we have direct contact with our schools. >> kasim reed, my hometown. i appreciate your time today. >> all right. you come back home one day. >> i will. john kerry to replace hillary claihil hillary clinton as secretary of state. i will talk to bill richardson. plus the gun industry by the numbers and some eye-popping statistics when it comes to firearms and the companies that make them. a little later this hour. how an early morning visitor and

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i'm very proud to announce my choice for america's next secretary of state, john kerry. in a sense, john's entire life has prepared him for this role. as the son of a born service officer he has a deep respect for the men and women of the state department. >> if senator john kerry's nomination is approved by the senate he will replace secretary hellory clinton who will step down in january. let's bring in governor of new

mexico and served as u.s. ambassador to the united nations. governor, always a pleasure to speak with you and when you look at this nomination of john kerry, what does u.s. foreign policy gain and lose with kerry at the helm here. as we both know, secretary clinton had broad name recognition and on the flip side, some say john kerry comes with far more experience than when secretary clinton took up the job. >> well, obviously, this is, i believe, one of the most qualified individuals in the country and ever to be nominated secretary of state. these are his assets and one, he's participated the last 30 years in the major foreign policy debates in the country so deep knowledge. secondly, he's a combat veteran and a war hero so he knows the scourges of war and military involvement and thirdly, he's a man of the congress and one of the big problems in the state department is that they don't get funded for embassy security

and consulate security like in benghazi. kerry can bring his enormous prestige as a senator for many years to get that funding. he's almost become president and foreign leaders respect him and the most important element, richard is his relationship with the president. it's a strong one. he's carried out a lot of missions for president obama and iraq and afghanistan, so i think it's an exceptional appointment and he'll sail through. he is an exceptional appointment. i think another asset that he has is the major challenges he's going to face. he has experience in them, stopping iran from getting a nuclear weapon. restarting the middle east peace negotiations and dealing with a hostile north korea.

finding ways to deal with the arab spring, the explosions there. he is so qualified in so many areas to deal with those crises. >> governor, you brought the issue of benghazi, with that still as an overhang right now waiting for secretary clinton to speak to lawmakers on the hill with secretary of state kerry, will that then be mitigated? richard, it's going to help and first of all, i think the benghazi report was a solid one. it was a huge tragedy losing four of the individuals including the ambassador, but if you look at that report, it says it's an important element, funding from the congress report, for security and our embassies overseas is needed. the state department has a very good, diplomatic security bureau and in fact, one of the four people that resigned, eric bosswell i knew. he's very talented and it's a

tragedy what happened and what kerry will be able to do is say to the congress look, we need more funding to protect our consulates, our diplomats and embassies and people overseas and i'll bet you that because he's a man of the congress he will get very good funding for this department. >> we'll see how it does work and how it may help and if he tries to get funding for the department and his style is known to be more face-to-face. as we know, secretary clinton is the most traveled secretary of state. does this mean that he'll be traveling more and what will his perception be of the key regions of the world that we are now watching. we're talking about the middle east and, of course, asia. what's the perception of him? >> well, he has an excellent reputation. as i said, he was a presidential candidate. he almost became president. he's traveled extense ofly as chairman of foreign relations. he fixed a problem, a serious problem we had in afghanistan with president karzai.

he knows the middle east. >> what are the style differences when you look at secretary clinton and perhaps secretary kerry if he takes on that job? >> well, both are going to have to -- both travel enormously. i suspect secretary kerry would travel enormously. they are both very scholarly, substantive, serious people. they're also politicians. they've been elected to major offices in the state and they know how to deal with people and they know how to deal with the bureaucracy. they know how to deal with the congress. the public has very high approval of both of them so i think you're going to see similar styles, but i think you will see senator kerry in his areas of expertise which are the middle east, arms control and climate change and that will be a very strong effort on his part

and then iraq. >> i hope he pays it -- >> north korea. he knows the issue well. i hope, personally, he pays more attention to latin america as someone who is a border governor, the relationship with mexico and latin america. i always feel it deserves more attention. >> governor bill richardson, former governor of new mexico. thank you so much. >>. >> thank you. one of the busiest travel days of the year and mother nature making it slow going in many parts of the country. we'll have the latest in weather and travel as we approach christmas day and 297 million guns in the u.s. for 315 million people. how does it all add up? the gun industry by the numbers when we come back. [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again. time for citi price rewind. because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price.

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center, 49% of people now say it's more important to control gun ownership. 42% say the right to own guns is more important. opinion was essentially divided in july after the deadly movie theater shootings in aurora, colorado. 47% said it was more important to protect gun ownership. 46% said it was more important to protect gun rights. a big part of the debate stems from the number of guns in this country. there are more than 297 million privately-owned firearms in the u.s. according to a congressional research service report. the gun industry here is thriving with profits doubling during the great recession. u.s. firearms remain one of the most successful industries in the world. stock prices of the two largest publicly traded firearm companies skyrocketed from the president's inauguration to the latest high. smith & wesson up over 260% and industry leader sturm, ruger and

company up over 500%. just to give you an example here of comparison. you would have made less money if you bought a share of tech darling apple which had a lower gain than sturm, ruger & company, but you didn't have to buy stock to win. industry jobs commonly reward employees with a $140,000 salary. that's almost three times the national average according to first research, and because much is done by hand as sales have grown, so have the number of employees. now up 30% over three years and this while the overall economy lost 10% of its jobs. just take a drive, for every mcdonald's there are ten dealers you can buy a gun from. the leading megadealer is walmart. its broad distribution helped fuel an industry sales comeback after a pre-2010 slump. these are the top ten states of guns sold per capita.

kentucky leads the group with more background checks than residents according to the daily beast. connecticut, home of the latest tragedy is ranked 47th in sales per capita. and gun-issue non-profits have pushed public opinion. their funding is 100 times greater than gun control groups says "the washington post." the firearms industry is like the harvard business school case of success, but after sandy hook, key investors like large retirement funds are now pulling their money out. they're questioning if it's all about profit. the nra's suggestion has been met with an avalanche of gun controlaed vok ats and i'll talk to the executive director of gun owners of america who says the

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i'm richard lui. here's a quick look at some of the top stories making news right now. syrian forces are firing more short-range scud missiles. the nato secretary-general called the use of the highly-destructive missiles, quote, acts of a desperate regime approaching collapse, end quote. margaretful th thatcher is in t hospital after a minor operation on her bladder. a spokeswoman for the 87-year-old says thatcher is doing, quote, absolutely fine and that she will stay in the hospital for a few more days until she returns home. a new york subway train derailed and dozens of

passengers had to be evacuated and move to another train and the cause is under investigation. the delays caused by early winter storms are easing and passengers faced delays as they rushed through passengers and the problem seems to be wind delays. gabe gutierrez is in atlanta. you're watching the entire country and newark, one of the spots. >> reporter: that's right, richard. it's not too bad in atlanta right now. it's actually moving around pretty well. certainly nothing like a widespread cancellation that we saw on thursday and friday, but as you mentioned there are minor headaches up in the northeast. wind is proving to be a problem in newark right now. we are told there is an average of 45-minute delay there due to wind and wind also delayed flights in washington earlier today. washington dulles, and it was a problem there and we are told that started to clear up and in the midwest, kansas city had long lines, as well and out

west, rain slowed down some of the air traffic and san francisco this morning. a lot of people that were paying attention to the weather reports said nearly one in four americans will travel in the next few days and they'll be taking advantage of the longer break with christmas and new year's both falling on a tuesday this year. back here in atlanta, travelers here are thankful that it is not quite so hectic especially after a very busy couple of days, thursday and friday more than 1600 cancellations throughout the country there. richard? >> on the map, we see that dulles no longer has delays and that's good for folks in d.c. thank you so much, gabe gutierrez at the country's busiest airport. we'll be checking back with you later to see how things are progressing. 's r reaction is pouring in the schools need better protection with armed guards. here's wayne lapierre.

>> i call on congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation and to do it now to make sure that blanket safety is in place when our kids return to school in january. >> joining us now is larry pratt, executive director of gun owners of america. you've been a very busy man. thank you so much, larry, i appreciate your time and you're saying you believe we should arm teachers and the question might be some of the estimates are at least $5 billion. who would pay for that? >> that might well be the price tag for armed guards. however, if teachers are able to get concealed carry permits and be in a classroom, then we could potentially have many more points of defense in a school than just one armed guard that would be very visible and if someone were maniacal enough to

come and attack a school they'd probably take that guard out first and there are school districts around the country and one in texas where i've spoken with the superintendent northwest of dallas, and the whole state of utah permits concealed carry of teachers and it's worked out very well. these have not become targets because i think most of the criminal class understands that an armed victim is too dangerous to take on, if they can go some other way to do their crime. >> there are some assumptions there and that is, of course, the question of mental health. you're seeing those of this side like to commit a crime and they're aware of these limitations and these challenges and we just look at columbine as senator feinstein was saying yesterday in addressing mr. lapierre's comment and she was saying look at columbine, there were two armed guards there. that did not work. >> they fled, whereas if you are under attack and you have a gun

then it's rather reasonable to think that you might want to use the gun because the alternative is not good. and to increase the odds of an armed assailant facing potentially deadly return fire is the reason why places like fairfax county where gun owners of america are located are so safe. we have concealed carry in a very urban county and we have a murder rate of .3 per 100,000. >> why would you need conceal and carry if this is an approach to ward off those who would commit such crimes. would you not to say, look, this is our defense? >> no, i think concealed carry offers the element of surprise so the perpetrator does not know who will be the one who will fire back. that uncertainty is one of the reasons that we find the crime rates low in areas where there

is high gun ownership and carry of concealed firearms. converse conversely, in our urban areas where they've been very hostile to gun ownership and gun carrying, that's where we find america's high murder rates. >> larry, i want to play this for you. last hour i spoke to james langvin, and he was injured in an accidental shooting that left him confined to a wheelchair when he was 16 and here's why he said guns in schools are not good. >> my accident, when i had my accident as a young police cadet happened in the police station at the hands of two weapons experts on the police s.w.a.t. team. if that doesn't prove that an accident with a weapon can happen anywhere, i don't know what does. we don't need more guns being around our children in schools. >> what do you say to gun violence victims like mr. langvin? >> well, i would offer a response from another gun violence victim, robert young, a

survivor of the stockton school yard massacre. he took a bullet to the chest and to the foot, and he's now a police officer in california and he says that definitely having more armed defenders at the point of a crime will increase everybody's -- all of the good guys' odds of survival and conversely decrease the bad guys' odds of survival. >> when we look at the harvard school of public health said and they did some crunching of the numbers said and they said this, quote, where there are more guns there's more homicide. >> that's simply not true. our fbi data and our national government data show that the higher murder rates, the higher violent crime rates are in areas where gun ownership is discouraged and carrying is either illegal or discouraged. i don't know what they were looking at at harvard, but that is absolutely not what the data show. >> if you also look at the top ten states across the country

and per capita gun ownership. five of those top ten states also have the highest gun deaths per capita. how do you explain that? >> they still have a low violent crime rate and a lower murder rate. so you're talking numbers versus rates, and i think that's probably where the disparity is coming in. >> last question for you here, larry. when we look at the problem ahead of us, several gun shows canceled in the wake of the newtown shooting, doesn't that go against the message that the nr ascent yesterday canceling the gun shows that canceling gun shows at least according to mr. lapierre's statements, need to be at schools and need to defend themselves. >> each gun show is privately owned and it's an owner's decision as to what to do. i, personally, would not have done that, but if that's their decision, so be it. >> larry pratt, thank you again.

inauguration take two. we'll materiel you what will be different this time around when brz is sworn in for the second time and up, in, elvis is dead, but he comes up in the conversation right after the break. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles

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is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. [ laughs ] dad! dad! [ applause ] ♪ [ male announcer ] life brings obstacles. usaa brings advice. call or visit us online. we're ready to help. it might be one of the most famous pictures ever taken in the oval office. richard nixon and elvis presley, december 21, 1970 and that picture any that meeting between the president and the king marks today's flashback. it was 42 years ago that elvis brought the handwritten letter to the gates of the white house and he handed it to the security guard and asked for a meeting with the president, the ring of rock 'n' roll also wanted to add to his credentials the title of federal agent at large. you remember that. richard nixon's staff granted the meeting and elvis and the

president took pictures and spoke about drug culture and according to white house aides elvis thought the beatles had been a real force for anti-american spirit and the meeting ended with elvis hugging president nixon. that's our flashback. speaking of celebs in the white house, eva longoria was named a co-chair of president obama's inaugural committee and she's been very vocal for this administration. the president and mrs. obama are hoping to tone this one down. and schroeder, mullins is former washington columnist. she's joining me live from washington, and ann, what's with the restraint here? why are they scaling back? it's the second time around and people are saying it's like a second wedding it's a sign of the economic times. people are struggling and right now, washington is fixated on the fiscal cliff negotiations. obama left today to go to hawaii for the holidays and they're sort of fixated on that.

i do know that yesterday the congressional leadership officially received their inauguration invites so at least we have a step in the right direction. >> eva longoria has been a huge supporter of the administration for this admin striegz and she was a tweet meister. >> she's co-chair. she came out big for obama and fund-raising for him and she helped with the latino vote which came out really strong in support of obama. so i think this inauguration and the party is really her payoff for the sweat equity she put into it. >> give us a peek behind the factory doors here and what's in the plans that we don't know about and who will be invited and those sorts of things. in the past there was the huge party or huge concert in 2009. that's not going to happen this year. this year it's really -- and i haven't heard a peep about the inauguration so far. i think it's really going to be toned down. abvowsly, they'll have a concern's concert and they haven't announced who is

performing with that and it's been having a day of service that the family will participate in that. in 2009 there are two balls and now there are ten balls and the two balls are held at the washington convention center which is not a glamorous place. it's a convention center. overall, i think, there will certainly be a lot of energy and in 2009 you couldn't walk down the street without tripping over a celebrity and by all means we'll still see famous faces, but not what we think. >> it took hours in 2009 and i expect nothing less this time around. i'll see you in d.c., perhaps. >> thank you. scott brownback to the senate and marc sanford and senator ashley judd? a game of musical chairs available for the next available office in the senate and we'll sort it all out. [ loud party sounds ] hi, i'm ensure clear... clear, huh? i'm not juice or fancy water. i've got nine grams of protein.

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i think it is fair to say that danny was perhaps my earliest -- or and this makes john kerry a perfect choice to guide american diplomacy in the weeks ahead. >> president obama making his pick for secretary of state, that was official yesterday, that will leave a open senate seat in massachusetts, that is not the only senate shuffle making headlines this week. let's bring in jonathan allen again and bill schneider, back to talk about where the senate musical chairs will be going. jonathan, we start with you. massachusetts, with we get to bring up the name again, scott brown, but we have to add to this ben aflack. >> that is right, not only is there an election to be had. but there could be an interim

appointment, you could think of a kennedy as a possible can dated for that, you have three others that may be interested in that seat, any number of names, scott brown probably the leading candidate, and william weld may be interested in that spot, so there's a lot of names floating out there. we will have to see what shakes out and of course, i'm going to lead in a little bit to somebody in another state, with ben afflack, and you may see ashley judd to ballot this year. >> i think you were reading my notes. let's talk about ashley judd you see her at all the kentucky games. she is at all the basketball games. she is potentially going up again a five term senator here. is it possible that ashley judd may take the nod here? >> mcconnell is worried. he and polling about ashley

judd, if he is polling he is worried. his numbers are not great and his colleague was not his choice, rand paul, to be the other senate, he was the tea party candidate. so mitch mcconnell is worried. >> she can bring in a lot of outside money, coming in from around the country and hollywood. >> she can, she has a few problems. she lives in tennessee and scott land where her husband is from. so a lot of kentucky voters will say, what does she have to do with us anymore. she has name recognition though, and in the game of running for political office that is important. >> another development, south carolina, nicki haley there announcing she was picking congressman tim scott to replace jim demint. and scott will be the only african american in the senate and one of only a handful in the history of the senate. who will replace scott may be the question here. ? well there's certainly any number of candidates, strom

thurmond ran against tim scott before. there's always the possibility, mark san ford, this will be a hotly contested race. if they can clear the field, remains to be seen. it's certainly a hot seat, it's interesting for house republicans that are looking for leadership these days. tim scott was a guy that you would have tapped as a future leader in the house of representatives and now has a possibility of being a leader in the senate. >> if he comes back from the scandal, that is an eye opener. let's go to newark, new jersey, may or booker who was talked about as running for the governor of new jersey, shifting

gears here. >> it will be tough, it looks right now to beat chris christie who is popular because of his handling of the hurricane sandy disaster. now, in the case, the question is, will the incumbent senator, who is going turn 89 soon, will he run for re-election? it will be a tough race for booker to run against him, he would have to argue he is too old, he is out of it. and a lot of democrats, including the democratic majority leader in the senator, harry reid will support frank laudenburg. >> thank you for sticking around. >> thanks, richard. >> you bet. president obama is in hawaii, members of congress are moment for the holidays. any chance they get a fiscal cliff deal done before the end of the year and then, one congressman who said this week, he is willing to lose his seat to support stricter gun control, he is going to join us after the break. copd makes it hard to breathe, but with advair, i'm breathing better.

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